Penguins’ Kris Letang on why he decided to play, David Morehouse on NHL schedule for 2020-21
On Monday, the Penguins opened training camp to prepare for 2020’s rebooted “NHL in a bubble” format.
The quest for the Stanley Cup officially resumed in Cranberry at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex. But first there is the quest to escape practices without the whole team contracting coronavirus.
Easier said than done.
On Day 1, the Penguins had to hold back nine players from skating — including Patric Hornqvist and Juuso Riikola — out of “an abundance of caution” because there were concerns of secondary exposure to someone with the virus.
“The decision that was made to quarantine the players out of caution is just going to be part of this process,” coach Mike Sullivan said after Monday’s practice. “It’s one of those things that we’ve got to be ready to adjust and adapt. That’s what we did out there today.”
In other words, welcome to hockey’s “new normal.”
I’m not sure if there is anything in the world I hate more than the phrase “new normal.”
Penguins Radio Network host Brian Metzer and I spend a lot of time talking about that situation in this week’s “Breakfast With Benz” hockey podcast. We also dive into defenseman Kris Letang’s interview on 105.9 The X with Mark Madden.
The topic of Letang’s health came up. Remember, Letang had a stroke in 2014. He also has a hole in the wall of his heart. But Letang insisted to Madden that he’ll be with the team when it returns to play.
“We saw all the options, the danger, and what was the best call to make,” Letang said about his consultations with medical experts. “And we ended up believing that wouldn’t be an issue to get back there.”
“There” as in the ice.
That’s a good thing for the Penguins. Because not only will Letang be essential on the blue line, he may also be key on the Pens’ power play if he entrenches himself in Phil Kessel’s old spot along the left wall.
We also get into the topic of next year and how this crazy, restructured season is going to bleed into the 2020-21 season.
Penguins president David Morehouse was also on 105.9 The X Monday, and he talked about the NHL’s plan to potentially start play sometime between December and January.
“I do think we could get through an 82-game schedule,” Morehouse told Madden. “It would go into the summer, and the following year we’d probably start in October. Like we should anyway. The math works for a Jan. 1 start. Moving through June and into July. And I think that’s probably our best-case scenario.”
Morehouse said waiting until the calendar turns to 2021 to begin next season may make things safe enough so that fans can return to the stands.
“We’re giving it more time for a vaccine. Or a medicine that makes (coronavirus) less deadly, or contagious,” Morehouse continued. “Having that extra time gives us an advantage. We won’t open our doors until our fans can be safe. We are also looking at ways to make the building more safe as far as retrofitting.”
Metzer and I tackle all these issues, as well as bigger-picture ones.
Such as our disappearing jobs, walking sharks and bears with nunchucks.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.